Both public and private wireless fidelity or (“Wi-Fi”) networks intended to provide internet connectivity services to mobile users at locations such as truck stops and campgrounds often fail to provide adequate service due to a limited coverage area. In many cases, the Wi-Fi access point providing the connection is located fully inside a building, or obstructions such as trees, utility buildings, gas pumps, or other structures further reduce signal strength. Thus, by the time the signal arrives at the user located remotely on the property, the signal is considerably weakened and resulting throughput is reduced.
The reception antennas typically used by the remotely-located user are almost always of an omni-directional type, which sacrifice efficiency in a particular direction in exchange for some lesser efficiency in all directions. Further, such omni-directional antennas usually are mounted directly to a device that is located inside of the structure or vehicle instead of in the open air, e.g. on a rooftop, where the Wi-Fi signal would be best received.
A directional Wi-Fi antenna will improve the situation by allowing the user to connect a stronger signal to the input of their bridge, router, or other Wi-Fi-connected equipment. Although a directional antenna system requires the antenna to be pointed directly at the access point source signal to make a connection, the connection is stronger than what could otherwise be obtained with an omni-directional antenna.
Although directional Wi-Fi antennas are available for sale in the market, all require the user to aim them manually. This is impractical in the case of an antenna mounted on vehicles and mobile structures such as a truck, a recreational vehicle (“RV”), trailer, fish house, or similar, since the user would need to move outside to the antenna and manually perform an adjustment to find the strongest signal, not just from Wi-Fi generally, but from the particular Wi-Fi access point that user wants to connect to. Most often, this aiming procedure would require the user to climb onto a rooftop, unfasten the antenna hardware to turn the antenna, and have a way to measure signal strength from a particular Wi-Fi access point. The user would then need to repeatedly climb down from the mounting location to check signal readings and be prepared to repeat this time consuming aiming and checking procedure whenever the antenna and/or the mounting surface (usually, a vehicle) are moved.
Additionally, since Wi-Fi networks operate in the unlicensed Industrial, Scientific and Medical bands (or “ISM Band”) frequency range of radio communications, there are many possible transmitter “sources” operating in this range and care must be taken to ensure that the specific named Wi-Fi network Service Set Identifiers (or “SSIDs”) are considered. Thus, the user will need to ensure that their directional antenna is indeed oriented towards the specific Wi-Fi network that the user wishes to connect to.
Therefore there remains a need to provide an improved Wi-Fi antenna that addresses some or all of the drawbacks in the prior art.